They call and say: Microsoft support, your computer is infected, everything will be wiped now, you must urgently install a program and dictate a code from the screen. Sometimes, before the call, a page with the same phone number and red text covered the whole monitor.
Microsoft does not call like that. They do not tell you by phone that the computer is infected, and they do not ask you to install anything. Hang up. Do not dial the number from the screen or from the page in the browser. Do not install what they named on the phone.
What happens
The call scares you with a breakdown you cannot see. Next they ask you to turn on remote access or to download a “treatment” program from their link. That is not treatment. It is a way to end up on your screen. Real Microsoft support does not call homes with news about a virus and does not dictate what to download.
A page in the browser that will not close with the ordinary cross and shouts about a virus is part of the same scheme, even if the call has not happened yet. Do not dial the phone number written on it. Close the tab through the browser menu, or Task Manager, if the cross will not press. Do not turn off the antivirus that is already in Windows because of this page. They may ask you to turn it off as the next step. Refuse.
The number on the phone screen can be faked, and the label can look solid. That changes nothing. You do not argue with the “engineer” and you do not read the code from the program window. If you already opened a remote access window because they told you to, close it and do not say the digits. Then uninstall what you installed because of this call, with ordinary program removal.
Change yourself the passwords that were on the screen while a stranger could see it. Open sites by hand, not through a link from a chat they sent next. Look at the bank in your own app. Do not read an SMS code into a “Microsoft” phone: the company does not need it to fix a computer it has not looked at.
A familiar voice or poor language has nothing to do with it. The speech can be very smooth. The check is not the accent. The check is that they called you suddenly and ask to be let onto the computer. There will be no such call from Microsoft.
What you can do on the computer without them
Close the page, do not call, do not install what they named. If the computer really is behaving strangely, that is a separate conversation, already without their link: the protection built into Windows, an update, a person you found yourself and called on a number from the official site, typed by hand. Not the person who called first.
Do not transfer money for a “treatment license”. A bill in a chat after a call like this is the scheme continued. Do not enter the card on their page. Do not take a second call from a “control department” as proof that the first one was honest.
A family computer and a child’s laptop are handled by the same logic. Do not hand the phone to the “engineer” so he can explain to the child where to click. Close the page yourself. If the child already said a code from the screen, stop the conversation, close the window, and change the passwords of the accounts that were open. Go into the bank from this computer only in your usual way, not by the button the red page left behind.
A colleague who “also got this call and they helped him” is not a reason to install the program. He may have been lied to the same way. You do not treat your computer from someone else’s chat. Do not put a shared USB stick with their “utility” into the port, even if it was brought from the office after a call like this.
A laptop that simply opens windows slowly is not proof of infection for this call. Slowness happens without a “service” too. Do not let a stranger look at the desktop only because the fan is noisy. First close the page and the call. A diagnosis by phone from an unknown number is not made.
What to check, in order
- Hang up. Do not stay on the line, even if they threaten that the computer will die right now.
- Do not install the program they named, and do not open a link from this conversation.
- Do not dictate a code from the screen, and do not turn off Windows protection because they asked.
- Close the page with the “support” phone number. Do not call that phone.
- If you already installed the program, close the session, do not read the digits, and uninstall it.
- Change yourself the passwords that could have been seen on the screen, on sites you open yourself.
- Go into the bank from your own icon. Do not read an SMS code into the phone.
- Do not transfer money for urgent computer treatment. Do not wait for a second “department” as confirmation.
Where people usually go wrong
- They call the number from the red page in the browser.
- They install a program because the voice called itself Microsoft.
- They turn protection off, as asked, “so it can be fixed”.
- They read a long number from a remote access window.
- They pay for a license so “the virus is removed today”.
Microsoft does not call to say the computer is infected. Do not install what they named, and do not dial the number from a page in the browser. Do not read a code from the screen into the phone.
What to do today
If the call or the red page already happened, do not call back anywhere and do not download anything. Close the tab, uninstall the program if you managed to install it from their link, and do not read digits from the screen. Change the passwords yourself, and open the bank separately. Do not turn Windows protection off because of this conversation.
A request to be let onto a device also shows up with a bank sign: fake bank support.
